Battery Trickle Charger

codekiddie

Member
Due to the little use we had out of our other classic, (a 1936 Morris Eight Tourer), a couple of the batteries we had fitted had died :(

To alleviate this problem, roughly three years ago I purchased a trickle charger from Halfords, (I'm sure that other outlets must sell similar units), that was capable of charging either 6V or 12V batteries. Since its purchase, I have never had any more issues with the battery on the vehicle, and has been a godsend in that respect. The other day I realised that the battery status light was no longer lit on the unit, and after a quick look I saw this.

IMG_5612.jpg


The unit looked as though an explosion had taken place inside, and the heat had melted the case and the toggle switch plastic part :shock: I opened the unit and found that a serious malfunction had occurred. Bearing in mind that the switch itself was still in the correct position on the PCB, the heat that had been generated must have either been intense, or extremely hot for quite a while to cause the toggle to melt :shock:

IMG_5614.jpg


Turning the PCB over, I found that the heat had completely trashed the other side of the PCB as well.....

IMG_5616.jpg


I found a capacitor rattling around in the unit, and looks to have either exploded, or had a serious meltdown. You can see on the top side of the PCB where the capacitor should have been, and seems to be at the heart of the charred area.

IMG_5617.jpg


I tried to start the car, and it fired up without any issues, so at least it doesn't appear to have had any effect on the battery.

I count myself lucky that there were no other consequences, (unlike others I have seen on here), but since these chargers are meant to be designed as a permanently connected unit, it was a little bit of a scare that they may not be as safe to leave switched on as we may think. I had always positioned the unit so that I can see the LED when entering the garage with the lights off, so in theory it was probably spotted within a few hours of occurring.

I have since purchased another unit from Halfords, and I noted that although the website shows the same picture, the design of the purchased unit has changed a little. Although under normal daily use the unit does not seem to generate any substantial heat, I will still be keeping a close eye on it :D

Whilst this may be a rare occurrence, I thought I ought to post this in case others have had the same unit for a similar number of years and utilise it in the same way as I do. Better safe than sorry :D
 
I often charge LiPo batteries for RC Planes and Helicopters and recommend purchasing one of two things to put the charger in,

1. A LiPo safe fireproof bag

or

2. And the best option for a charger (given the heat) a surplus Army Ammunition Box
images
 
frightening stuff, one charred house and fire engines could have been the result of that.
Very revealing photos, my guess is that the 3 pin device went short, the resultant time extended high current then took out the capacitor, the smaller 3 pin device (I am guessing it is a TL431) may have gone faulty and caused it.
Alternately the cracked vertical diode may well have just failed causing the above.


Graeme
 
westOz74P6B said:
Lucky Phil we call you now!
You can say that again :shock:

westOz74P6B said:
Was it especially a trickle charger to maintain the battery's charge, that is it will turn itself off and on?
It was this type, and the main reason for selecting such a charger in that I could, (in theory at least), simply 'Fit and forget'. They call it a 'Maintenance Charger' and one of it's listed features is:

'The maintenance charger can safely be left connected to a battery for extended periods'.

As we all know, with anything electrical they can, (and often do), go wrong, and I'm sure the manufacturers could put the positive 'spin' on the fact that although the unit failed, it was prevented from damaging anything more than itself. Whether or not it had some inbuilt safety feature for that purpose is obviously unknown, but the fact that the catastrophic looking internal damage did not breach the case, (although it was quite badly melted), is actually quite impressive :LOL:
 
westOz74P6B said:
Lucky Phil we call you now!
usually a trickle charger is put on overnight to bump the battery up to full charge every couple of weeks, hope it wasn't kept on full time.

E.g.: http://www.batterybusiness.com.au/produ ... y-chargers
Interesting site, but on one of it's pages it seems to disagree with you:

http://www.batterybusiness.com.au/products/chargers-inverters#trickle

Specifically:

'This means your battery be in good cond when you come back. Trickle chargers are ideal for boats on moorings, classic cars and motorcycles and although the charger is left on all time energy consumption is trivial.'
 
I don't agree on the efficacy of trickle chargers for flooded lead acid cell batteries. The process of "putting just enough" into a battery is a faulty premise. Most manufacturers of trickle chargers put a maintaining charge of 13.8 Volts this is the theoretical charged voltage of the lead acid cell with an 1250 SG at 20 c However in the flooded environment you get stratification of the sulfuric acid electrolyte which will eat away the plates causing battery failure, if the voltage is raised to 14.4 the bubbling in the electrolyte causes the electrolyte to mix. I have had my classics on charge continuously for about 7 or 8 years with great results.
The only downside is that periodically you may need to top up the electrolyte with water as it evaporates off. One upside I have observed using this regime the batteries internal impedance has dropped this means that the available start current has improved on what the batteries (which were old) started with.


Graeme
 
I disconnect the battery when not in use. When the car is laid up over winter I remover the battery and charge it every 6 weeks
 
a smart charger such as a ctek would be a better option. as the turn them self's off when when the battery is charged, and when the voltage drops it will recharge the battery.
 
In my roll as a Designer and manufacturer working in the Transport Industry I designed and manufactured a product that is simply connected to your standard old school battery charger ( I have also used it on the output of solar panels) and it provides you with a highly regulated precise output voltage (adjustable).

I used it personally to keep multiple classic car batteries charged for about 10 years off my roof top solar panels.
 

Attachments

  • Post Reg.JPG
    Post Reg.JPG
    100.3 KB · Views: 331
ghce said:
In my roll as a Designer and manufacturer working in the Transport Industry I designed and manufactured a product that is simply connected to your standard old school battery charger ( I have also used it on the output of solar panels) and it provides you with a highly regulated precise output voltage (adjustable).

I used it personally to keep multiple classic car batteries charged for about 10 years off my roof top solar panels.

Interesting; do they just connect straight to the MC4 Connector on a panel?. Do you sell them?
 
We just have them terminate in a cable, leaving the choice up to the installer as to whether to hard wire or use a connector.

Initially we designed them for a Camper Van company that had issues with customers connecting the supplied battery chargers and leaving them on all the time boiling the batteries and ultimately causing battery failure and to much Hydrogen gas. This device allowed them to hard wire the battery charger to the battery so that when they connected the Van to the mains at a campsite they could safely leave it connected indefinitely.


Graeme
 
I was fascinated on reading the P6Club Technical pages to see the car can be trickle charged through the cigar lighter
although a neater solution is to buy a cigar lighter adaptor and charge through the dashboard. All P6’s have permanently live cigar lighters, so you won’t even need to leave the key in.
:cool: wow that is the way to do it, has anybody successful managed that? and 'cigar lighter adaptor' where from? :p I like the sound of that
 
I use a C-TEK on another classic, they have a choice of ring terminals, crocodile clips, or cigar lighter input leads, you may have to buy extra leads as not all three come with the charger.
The car in question has been charged through the cigar lighter since the battery was bought, it is only a medium quality battery and it was purchased in 2008 !!!! and is still perfect.
 
I run a trickle charger on my garage queen. I ran fused leads outside the body from the battery poles, inside the isolator switch (so I can leave the battery on trickle while isolating the car for work), and fitted a socket under the rear licence plate as below. I know this wont work on a P6, but there will be somewhere inconspicuous to mount a connection. I think its called a 'Merit' plug. Socket has a cap.
X6If6GB.jpg

Probe:
JF7F3IK.jpg

jp
 
Never used one on a car, but the bike battery does go down over a period of time so I have a Noco Genius 2 battery maintainer for that. It has crocodile clips but they can be taken off leaving a couple of eyelets which are permanently connected to the battery. You just plug it in now and then, and let it trickle the battery up for a day. I never leave it plugged in over night though, just a day a month keeps it topped up enough.
 
Back
Top